Community Psychology Flashcards
1
Q
What is Community Psychology?
A
- Focuses on the social settings, systems, and institutions that influence groups, organizations and the individuals within them.
2
Q
Principles of Community Psychology
Respect For Persons
A
- Diversity extends beyond culture, ethnicity, and race to include gender, disability, sexual orientation, and marginalized and oppressed groups.
- Studying ethnic minority groups is crucial for accurate sampling and understanding cultural variations within these populations.
- Marginalized groups such as homosexuals, individuals with disabilities, and women are often overlooked or underserved.
- Intersections of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and class present challenges in community psychology practice.
- Despite recognition, the full implications of diversity in the field are still being explored and understood.
3
Q
Principles of Community Psychology
Importance of Context and Environment
A
- Behavior is influenced by both personal dispositions and environmental factors, as formulated by Kurt Lewin’s equation B = f(P × E).
- Roger Barker’s study of “behaviour settings” demonstrated how environmental cues guide individuals’ actions within a specific context, with violations often resulting in social consequences.
- Barker also explored the concept of overmanning and undermanning in settings, highlighting how the number of individuals in a setting affects social dynamics and newcomer acceptance.
- Environmental signals and pressures play a significant role in shaping behavioral tendencies, emphasizing the importance of context in understanding human behavior.
- Behavioral community psychology emphasizes the role of context in learning theory, where discriminative stimuli within a setting influence behavior through reinforcement and punishment.
- Context encompasses various factors such as stimulus controls, rules, and participatory patterns within a setting, which can influence behavior patterns and newcomer acceptance.
- Understanding behavior requires considering the framework of context, as individuals’ actions are influenced by their environment.
4
Q
Principles of Community Psychology
Empowerment
A
- Empowerment encompasses respect, self-determination, and self-efficacy, enhancing individuals’ ability to control their lives actively.
- It is conceptualized as a value, process, and outcome.
- As a value, empowerment acknowledges individuals’ strengths, competencies, and resources, viewing them as nonpathological.
- As a process, empowerment involves individuals and communities feeling they have control over events, structures, and policies shaping their lives.
- It is also an outcome of democracy, where people feel empowered through participation and influence.
- Efficacy beliefs, including agency, self-efficacy, and collective efficacy, contribute to empowerment by fostering the belief in one’s ability to effect change.
- Empowerment extends beyond cognitive components to include action on one’s behalf, promoting active engagement and agency in pursuing goals.
5
Q
Principles of Community Psychology (The Ecological Perspective)
Urie Bronfenbrenner (1977)
Microsystem
A
- The individual occupies the central position in the schema.
- The “immediate system” surrounds the individual and consists of physical features, activities, and roles related to the person.
- Examples of immediate systems include the playroom, home, or classroom.
- Microsystems have a direct impact on the individual, shaping their experiences and behaviors.
- Simultaneously, the individual can also exert influence on the immediate system, contributing to its dynamics and functioning.
6
Q
Principles of Community Psychology (The Ecological Perspective)
Urie Brofenbrenner (1977)
Mesosystem
A
- The mesosystem serves as the framework that holds microsystems and facilitates their interaction.
- It represents the places where different microsystems intersect or overlap, such as the interaction between the school and family environments.
- Essentially, the mesosystem is a “system of microsystems” wherein the child or individual actively participates.
- Interaction within the mesosystem can foster feelings of connection or disconnection among the microsystems involved.
- Additionally, the mesosystem can influence the collection of social, material, and political resources available to the individual.
- Conversely, inadequate interaction within the mesosystem can lead to alienation or disconnection between the various components.
7
Q
Principles of Community Psychology (The Ecological Perspective)
Urie Bronfenbrenner (1977)
Exosystem
A
- The exosystem extends beyond the immediate environment of the child or individual.
- It comprises settings or systems that indirectly impact the mesosystem and, subsequently, the individual.
- Examples include government agencies such as school boards, city councils, or state legislatures, which influence schools and families but are not part of them.
- Additionally, work situations for family members can be considered part of the exosystem, as they influence the micro- and mesosystems in which the child or individual participates.
- Essentially, the exosystem encompasses external environments that have an indirect but significant influence on the individual’s immediate surroundings and interactions.
8
Q
Principles of Community Psychology (The Ecological Perspective)
Urie Bronfenbrenner (1977)
Macrosystem
A
- The macrosystem does not encompass specific settings but rather overarching cultural, societal, and institutional factors.
- It includes laws, cultural norms, values, religious beliefs, and other broad influences that shape the functioning of lower-level systems.
- Examples of elements within the macrosystem include national laws and policies, cultural norms and traditions, societal values, and religious beliefs.
- These factors set the broader context within which microsystems, mesosystems, and exosystems operate, influencing their structure, interactions, and outcomes.
9
Q
Principles of Community Psychology (Kelly Formation)
Interdependence
A
- In community psychology, the ecosystem metaphor emphasizes the interconnectedness and interdependence of various elements within a community.
- Like in a natural ecosystem, changes or actions in one part of the community can have ripple effects across the entire system.
- The community ecosystem includes elements such as resources (funding, infrastructure), individuals and groups (community members, organizations), activities (programs, initiatives), traditions, values, history, and culture.
- Just as a baseball game involves multiple factors interacting to shape the outcome, community action requires an understanding of the complex interplay between these elements.
- Interventions or changes within the community must consider these interdependencies to effectively address community needs and promote positive outcomes.
10
Q
Principles of Community Psychology (Kelly Formation)
Cycling of Resources
A
- The principle of energy conservation in a system implies that the total energy remains constant; any expenditure of energy in one area results from the transfer of energy from another area.
- Similarly, in a community, resources are finite, and allocating resources to one area necessitates taking resources away from another area.
- Therefore, the community faces choices about where to direct its attention and expend its resources.
- For example, if more funds are allocated to education, it may come at the expense of repairing roads, and vice versa.
- These choices require careful consideration of community priorities and trade-offs between different needs and objectives.
11
Q
Principles of Community Psychology (Kelly Formation)
Adaptive Capacity
A
- Survival in various environments is linked to an individual’s ability to effectively navigate and adapt to their surroundings.
- Those with a broader adaptive range, meaning they can adjust to a wider range of environments, are more likely to survive and thrive.
- Community cultures play a significant role in facilitating learning, living, and adapting to different environments.
- Communities that foster diverse experiences and provide opportunities for individuals to learn and change their living situations across various settings promote successful adjustment to change.
- In essence, the ability to adapt to diverse environments enhances the likelihood of survival and successful adjustment to change.
12
Q
Principles of Community Psychology (Kelly Formation)
Succession
A
- Change is inevitable and follows a predictable sequence over time.
- Just as individuals like the queen of England or a president will not remain in their positions indefinitely, settings and organizations also undergo changes.
- Succession planning is crucial for community psychologists to anticipate and adapt to these changes effectively.
- Paying attention to the evolving dynamics within settings and organizations enables community psychologists to navigate succession processes more smoothly.
- Recognizing and preparing for changes ensures continuity and facilitates smoother transitions in leadership and organizational structures.
13
Q
Types of Research
Ethnography
A
- Qualitative research involves direct interaction with study participants to understand their experiences and perspectives.
- The primary purpose is to gain insight into how individuals perceive and interpret their own lives and environments.
- Participants use their own language to articulate their experiences, providing rich qualitative data.
- Researchers’ value systems may influence social interactions with participants, potentially impacting the data collected.
- Ethnographic studies yield qualitative information that informs future research directions.
14
Q
Types of Research
Network Analysis
A
- Network analysis focuses on patterns of relationships among individuals.
- Two types of network analysis are egocentric, which examines an individual’s relationships, and sociometric, which studies linkages among members of a group.
15
Q
Types of Research
Epidemiology
A
- Epidemiology is the study of the occurrence and distribution of diseases and health-related conditions in populations.
- It encompasses various study designs, such as prospective and retrospective studies, and measurement procedures like records, random telephone samples, or neighborhood surveys.
- Two measures of illness rates in the community are prevalence and incidence.
- Prevalence refers to the total number of people in a given population who have a specific disorder.
- Incidence indicates the number of people in a population who acquire the condition within a specific period.
- Incidence rates* are established through prospective designs, counting all new cases within a defined timeframe.
- Prevalence rates are determined through retrospective designs, counting both old and new cases to assess the total number of cases in the population at a particular time.
